1. A method of presenting a videoconference, wherein the method is performed by an endpoint of a videoconferencing system, the method comprising:
receiving, from a bridge, information regarding available videoconferencing layouts;
transmitting, to the bridge, after said receiving information, a command configured to instruct the bridge to generate a composite video stream according to a specified one of the available videoconferencing layouts, wherein the composite video stream is generated by the bridge compositing, according to the specified layout, a plurality of component video streams received from a plurality of endpoints of the videoconferencing system;
receiving, from the bridge, after said transmitting a command, the composite video stream;
receiving a secondary video stream;
compositing the received composite video stream with the received secondary video stream to generate an endpoint presentation; and
displaying the endpoint presentation on a display of the endpoint.
2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:
receiving user input selecting the specified one of the available videoconferencing layouts, wherein said transmitting the command is in response to said receiving user input.
3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:
transmitting, to the bridge, prior to said receiving information, an inquiry requesting the information regarding available videoconferencing layouts.
4. The method of claim 1, wherein the information regarding available videoconferencing layouts comprises geometries and arrangements of geometric spaces defined by the layouts.
5. The method of claim 4, further comprising:
generating a user interface comprising a graphical list of at least a subset of the available videoconferencing layouts.
6. The method of claim 5, in which an element of the graphical list comprises a representation of the geometries and arrangements of the respective videoconferencing layout.
7. The method of claim 4, wherein the specified layout comprises a geometric space in which the bridge does not composite a component video stream.
8. The method of claim 7, wherein said compositing the received composite video stream with the received secondary video stream further comprises:
reducing the size of the secondary video stream to be equal to the size of the geometric space in which the bridge does not include a component video stream; and
overlaying the secondary video stream upon the geometric space in which the bridge does not composite a component video stream.
9. An endpoint device in a videoconferencing system, comprising:
a display;
communication circuitry; and
a processor configured to:
receive, from a bridge via the communication circuitry, information regarding available videoconferencing layouts;
transmit, to the bridge via the communication circuitry, after said receiving information, a command configured to instruct the bridge to generate a composite video stream according to a specified one of the available videoconferencing layouts, wherein the composite video stream is generated by the bridge compositing, according to the specified layout, a plurality of component video streams received from a plurality of endpoints of the videoconferencing system;
receive, from the bridge via the communication circuitry, after said transmitting a command, the composite video stream;
receive a secondary video stream;
composite the received composite video stream with the received secondary video stream to generate an endpoint presentation; and
display the endpoint presentation on the display.
10. The endpoint device of claim 9, wherein the processor is further configured to:
a user input device;
wherein the processor is further configured to:
receive user input, via the user input device, selecting the specified one of the available videoconference layouts, wherein said transmitting the command is in response to said receiving user input.
11. The endpoint device of claim 9, wherein the processor is further configured to:
transmit, to the bridge via the communication circuitry, prior to said receiving information, an inquiry requesting the information regarding available videoconferencing layouts.
12. The endpoint device of claim 9, wherein the information regarding available videoconferencing layouts comprises geometries and arrangements of geometric spaces defined by the layouts.
13. The endpoint device of claim 12, wherein the processor is further configured to:
generate a user interface comprising a graphical list of at least a subset of the available videoconferencing layouts.
14. The endpoint device of claim 13, in which an element of the graphical list comprises a representation of the geometries and arrangements of the respective videoconferencing layout.
15. The endpoint device of claim 12, wherein the specified layout comprises a geometric space in which the bridge does not composite a component video stream.
16. The endpoint of claim 15, wherein said compositing the received composite video stream with the received secondary video stream further comprises:
reducing the size of the secondary video stream to be equal to the size of the geometric space in which the bridge does not include a component video stream; and
overlaying the secondary video stream upon the geometric space in which the bridge does not composite a component video stream.
17. A method of providing a videoconference for presentation, wherein the method is performed by a bridge of a videoconferencing system, the method comprising:
receiving a plurality of component video streams from a plurality of respective endpoints of the videoconferencing system;
transmitting, to a first endpoint of the plurality of respective endpoints, information regarding available videoconferencing layouts;
receiving, from the first endpoint, after said transmitting information, a command configured to instruct the bridge to generate a composite video stream according to a specified one of the available videoconferencing layouts;
generating, in response to said receiving the command, the composite video stream by compositing the plurality of component video streams according to the specified layout, wherein each component video stream is arranged within one of a plurality of geometric spaces defined by the specified layout;
transmitting, to the first endpoint, the composite video stream; and
transmitting, to the first endpoint, a secondary video stream, wherein the first endpoint is configured to composite the composite video stream with the secondary video stream to generate an endpoint presentation.
18. The method of claim 17, further comprising:
receiving, from the first endpoint, an inquiry requesting the information regarding available videoconferencing layouts, wherein said transmitting information is in response to said receiving the inquiry.
19. The method of claim 17, wherein the information regarding available videoconferencing layouts comprises geometries and arrangements of geometric spaces defined by the layouts.
20. The method of claim 19, wherein the specified layout comprises a geometric space in which the bridge does not composite a component video stream.
The claims below are in addition to those above.
All refrences to claim(s) which appear below refer to the numbering after this setence.
1. A positioning system for positioning food products, comprising
a main conveying surface configured to move food products; and
an electronic sensor configured to capture position data about one or more food products on the main conveying surface within a sensor range of the sensor;
a controller signal-connected to the electronic sensor and the robot; the controller is configured to receive data captured by the sensor and configured to instruct a robot to move a food product to a destination position; and
the robot configured to reposition one or more food products on the conveying surface according to instructions sent by the controller.
2. The positioning system of claim 1, wherein the sensor comprises a camera.
3. The positioning system of claim 1, wherein the robot has a longitudinal working range for positioning a one or more food products to a destination position either upstream or downstream from an original position of the food product with respect to a conveying direction of the conveying surface.
4. The positioning system of claim 1, wherein the robot has a lateral working range for positioning one or more food products to a destination position transverse from an original position of the food product in relation to a conveying direction of the conveying surface.
5. The positioning system of claim 1, wherein the sensor captures an orientation of one or more food products on the conveying surface within the sensor range.
6. The positioning system of claim 1, wherein the controller comprises instruction for determining whether a food product is in a mis-orientated position on the conveying surface by comparing a measured orientation with a predefined orientation or a predefined orientation range; and,
the controller comprises instructions for directing the robot to move a particular food product from the misorientated position to a corrected orientation; and
wherein the robot has a rotatable ripper for rotating an orientation of one or more food products about at least one axis of rotation.
7. The positioning system of claim 1, wherein the controller comprises instruction for determining whether a food product is in a misaligned position on the conveying surface; and,
the controller comprises instructions for directing the robot to move a particular food product from the misaligned position to an aligned position.
8. The positioning system of claim 1, wherein each food product has a transverse position and a longitudinal position on the conveying surface, and wherein sensor is capable of generating a signal representing a captured position including the transverse and the longitudinal position of one or more food products on the conveying surface within the sensor range, and wherein the controller has position determining instructions configured to compare the captured position with a predefined position to determine whether the product is mis-positioned; and the controller is configured to send corrected food product movement instructions to the robot to move an mis-positioned food product to a corrected food product position.
9. The positioning system of claim 1, wherein the controller comprises a datastore having at least one predefined transverse centerline value representing a transverse position on which selected food products are to be aligned to form a transverse row on the conveying surface; the controller comprises a misaligned food product calculating instruction for determine whether a measured food product position value received from the sensor is outside of the transverse centerline value; and
wherein the controller is configured to instruct the robot to move one or more misaligned food products into an alignment position on the transverse centerline.
10. The positioning system of claim 1, wherein the controller comprises a datastore having at least one predefined longitudinal centerline value representing a longitudinal position on which the food products are to be aligned to form a transverse row on the conveying surface; and the controller comprises a misaligned food product calculating instruction for determine whether a measured food product position value received from the sensor is outside of the longitudinal centerline value; and
wherein the controller is configured to instruct the robot to move misaligned food products into an alignment position on the longitudinal centerline.
11. The positioning system of claim 1, wherein the robot is configured to re-positioning food products on the conveying surface while the conveying surface is moving.
12. The positioning system of claim 1, wherein the robot is configured to re-orientate food products while the conveying surface is moving.
13. The positioning system of claim 1, comprising a high speed food product slicing machine for cutting off a series of slices from a food loaf, the slicing machine is located upstream from the sensor range and produces food products received by the conveying surface; the slicing machine having a rotatable slicing blade, a conveying assembly, and a support for holding a loaf in a cutting path of the rotatable slicing blade, the slicing blade arranged to rotate in the cutting path to slice drafts from the loaf, the drafts being plural slices formed in a pile on the conveying assembly and the piles are transported onto the main conveyor.
14. The positioning system of claim 1, comprising a food patty forming machine located upstream from the sensor range, the patty forming machine for producing food products received by the conveying surface; the patty-forming machine having a machine frame, a mold plate having at least one cavity and mounted to reciprocate in a longitudinal direction with respect to the frame to position the cavity between a fill position and patty knock out position, a food product delivery channel for delivering food product into the cavity, the food product delivery channel mounted stationary with respect to the frame and having a fill opening into the cavity when the mold plate is in the fill position, one or more knockout plungers for expelling the formed food product from the mold plate onto an output conveyor when the mold plate is in the knockout position.
15. A positioning system of claim 1, further comprising an off-weight conveyor located adjacent to the main conveying surface for receiving food products that are not correctable by robot manipulation.
16. A positioning system of claim 15, further comprising a shuttle robot configured to move between a pickup area on the main conveyor and a drop area on the off-weight conveyor.
17. A positioning system of claim 15, further comprising a correction station adjacent to an off-weight conveyor; and
the correction station configured to align a position of a food product or configure to add or subtract food product from a food product so that the food product matches a predefined weight.
18. A positioning system of claim 1, further comprising an off-weight conveyor, the off-weight conveyor comprising a downstream end, an upstream end, and a longitudinal portion;
the downstream end is adjacent to a downstream end of the main conveyor, the longitudinal portion runs upstream from the downstream end of the of-weight conveyor along the main conveyor, and the upstream end of the off-weight conveyor crosses the main conveyor is adjacent to a correction station on a side of the main conveyor opposite the longitudinal portion.
19. A method of aligning food products on a conveyor, comprising the steps of
providing a food product on a conveyor,
detecting a position of the food product with a sensor; and
moving a mis-positioned food product from an original position on the conveyor to a destination position on the conveyor with a robot.
20. The method of claim 19, and wherein the step of detecting is defined in that the position is an orientation of the food product; and wherein the step of moving includes rotating a misorientat\xe9d food product from an original orientation on the conveyor to a destination orientation on the conveyor with the robot.
21. The method of claim 19, and wherein the step of detecting is defined in that the position is a vertical alignment position of food products in a food product stack; and
wherein the step of moving includes positioning, with the robot, food products within the food product stack to bring the food product stack into a predefined vertical alignment.
22. The method of claim 19, after the step of detecting, comprising the following steps:
sending a measured position value corresponding to the food product position detected by the sensor to a controller;
determining with the controller whether the food product is mis-positioned by comparing the measured position value one or more predefined position values.
23. The method of claim 22, and wherein the step of detecting is defined in that the position is an orientation of the food product; and wherein the step of sending is defined in that the measured position value is a measured orientation value corresponding to the food product orientation; and wherein the step of determining is determining with the controller whether the food product is misorientated by comparing the measured orientation value with one or more predefined orientation values; and
wherein the step of moving includes rotating a misorientated food product from an original orientation on the conveyor to a destination orientation on the conveyor with the robot.
24. The method of claim 22, wherein the step of providing comprises providing a stream of food products on a moving conveyor; and
wherein the step of detecting comprises detecting a position of each food product within a row width with the sensor;
wherein sending comprises sending a position value corresponding to a position of each food product in the row width to a controller; and
wherein the step of determining comprises determining a properly aligned position for each misaligned food product within the width row; and
wherein the step of moving comprises moving each a misaligned food product from an original position on the conveyor to a destination position corresponding to the properly aligned position on the conveyor with a robot.
25. The method of claim 19, wherein the moving step comprises the steps of: lifting the food product from the original position on the conveyor, and placing the food product down on a destination position on the conveyor with the robot.
26. The method of claim 19, after the step of detecting and before the step of moving, further comprising the steps of: determining whether a food product is robot-correctable food product with a controller; and wherein the step of moving is further defined in that only robot-correctable mis-positioned or mis-orientated food products are moved by the robot.
27. The method of claim 19, after the step of detecting, further comprising the steps of:
sending to a controller the measured position value corresponding to the food product potion as measured by the sensor;
determining whether a food product is robot-correctable food product by determining whether the position value is within a predefined correctable position range; and
routing a non-robot-correctable food products to a correction station; and manually correcting the non-robot-correctable food products that are manually correctable.